Category archives: california

If you have never driven up the California coast on highway 1 through Big Sur, promise me you will do it sometime in your lifetime. you will thank me. Andreas was pretty much sold on California after our little road trip up the coast, oh wait, who i am kidding, he loved the state long before he even visited! We have Baywatch to thank for that ;)Anyway… it was the perfect day and the perfect weather exploring one of my favorite parts of my home state. We had lunch over looking the ocean on the patio at Nepenthe, which has pretty much the best restaurant view in the world. or at least one of the best :) And now, writing this post and hearing about the 80 degree weather I am feeling utterly homesick, and its only been 10 days! :( Well, on the bright side, only 176 more days until we fly back :)

a few more pictures from our time here in California-No trip to San Luis Obispo would be complete without showing Andreas the Madonna Inn, the mecca of the color pink, which especially shines during the holidays :).A few from our engagement party, which turned out great, but sadly we were too busy enjoying ourselves to remember to take many photos :( How chic and gorgeous are all of my friends in our prom-esque photo?And last but not least, our intimate New Years feast at our friends’ Santa Barbara ranch, which was one of the best new years ever- none of the drama of the typical new years out on the town, just the 4 of us, with amazing food and champange! Prime Rib, brussel sprouts, yogurt mashed potatoes, yorkshire pudding, and a roasted beet, spinach and gorganzola salad which was incredible and I am definitely stealing the recipe for our next dinner party.

I cannot believe it has really been a whole year since I was back home in California! I am so ridiculously excited to see my friends, family and my lovely little hometown. Surely it will be an adventure filled 2 weeks and I will try and pop in to share some of it with you, my lovely friends/readers. I hope all of you are prepping for a great holiday where ever you might be celebrating!We are off to the train station now to catch the train to Zürich for our flight to London this evening, and a night in London awaiting our flight to LA tomorrow. If you follow me on twitter you saw that it was quite a morning… but crossing my fingers that our travels will work out better from here on.

listening to this song on the plane to the states is my little tradition and always puts me in the perfect traveling mood. :)

I stumbled upon this video and fell in love, who would think fog was so beautiful? This video shows my old home beloved San Francisco in such an incredible light and will change the way I view the clouds above me forever. Just stunning and I keep watching over and over.

Simon Christen has more gorgeous work on his site, which you should definitely see for yourself, his cityscapes are amazing.

thank you to fabulous alissa for liking such fabulous things and bringing them to me :)

Technically it is still Cinco de Mayo in my home state….. so I didn’t completely miss it. Yesterday I was a very very tired little ashley and the few moments I had free I was playing travel agent for my parents’ upcoming trips to Berlin and Paris. They’re a comin! Very excited for some house guests and family time :)

So I hope one of you had a whole lotta mexican food for me and maybe one little shot of Don Julio? What I wouldn’t do for a burrito … :( definitely one of the foods I miss the most, along with Pho, sushi, and the whole foods salad bar. I know there is a Tex-Mex restaurant in Strasbourg and several in Paris, but I am so damn particular about Mexican food I am scared of being disappointed. :( Courtney offered to send me a burrito from the Mission the other day, but I am pretty sure that would be nasty by the time it arrived so I’ll just keep on waiting. just seven more months till California…. perhaps there is somewhere in Boston to fill my craving? For now I will make some tortilla soup :) That usually does the trick to feed my longing for Mexican food, and maybe a trip to my favorite Columbian restaurant?

Andreas eating his very first Burrito on his very first trip in California :)

He will kill me for posting this, but I don’t care!

and fyi, I definitely checked out flights yesterday to fly to San Francisco for a long weekend (yes, I am aware I am crazy, last year I flew for a two day trip) …. Sadly they are $1000 which is a little too much to justify a desperately needed weekend with my girls. :(

After what seemed like ages, i finally got to catch up with several best friends this week via skype and telephone (my 5€ flat rate calling to the US was the best discovery ever) and now once again my heart is full. It had been far too long since I had been able to sit down and just hear everything that is going on in their lives and talk for hours. Doing so definitely makes the distance feel much smaller.

This picture definitely sums up my sentiment perfectly. Part of my heart is definitely left in California with those I love so dearly.

Chasing Heartbeats is the visual journal from photographer Ashley Ludaescher, a California girl living in Berlin, Germany. This blog features snippets from life in Berlin, travels around Europe, and Heartbeats- inspirations and somewhat magical moments in everyday life.